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Archive for the ‘records’ tag

Manifest CDs & DVDs, 1563 Broad River Road Suite A: January 2019   3 comments

Posted at 10:20 pm in closing

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I used to be obsessive about many things, well, I guess I still am though the things have changed over the years. One of them was records in general, and record stores. Since I spent most of my teenage years broke, after I discovered rock music in 1975 or so, I was all about the "cut-outs" and used records. At garage sales, I would flip through every album, at record stores, or even Woolworth's and Kmart I would look at *every* LP in the cut-out bin.

If I recall correctly, I first visited Manifest when it was on Main Street somewhere near Jefferson Square (though on the other side of the street). Two items I recall in particular buying there, were a The Nails album with one version (there are at least 3) of 88 Lines About 44 Women (nsfw), and Songs Of The Spires by The Gleaming Spires.

By the time the moved to Boozer Shopping Center, I was living out of town and listening almost exclusively to CDs (more accurately, to tapes of CDs in my car). In its way, this was sort of a Golden Age, because I had a job (and spending money), and used CDs, if they would play at all, sounded just as good as new CDs. When I was in town, I spent many hours flipping through all the "used" bins, as well as buying some of the more interesting "import" CDs which usually only turned up at Manifest or Sounds Familiar in Myrtle Beach.

The Golden Age didn't really last too long. By the end of the 20th Century, it was clear that the future of music was digital, and unclear where record stores fit into that future. In the event, it turns out that they more or less don't. Carl Singmaster, the founder of Manifest sold the store in 2004, and as I recall there was a closing scare at that time, or not long after.

Also, at some point, the name of the store changed from Manifest Records & Tapes (or at least that's the way I recall it) to the current name of Manifest CDs & DVDs. Unfortuneately, the bottom dropped out of the DVD market not many years after CDs crashed and burned, and that puts us here in the twilight of an era.

UPDATE 5 February 2019 -- Now closed:

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Written by ted on January 14th, 2019

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Maudy's Bosom (& Mosob), 709 Santee Avenue: 1974   19 comments

Posted at 12:45 am in Uncategorized

Here's a place I never heard of before starting this blog, but it's come up several times in the comments over the years. Here's what I know from the library and internet:

The 1969 city directory lists 709 Santee Avenue as having two units, 709-A & 709-B, both of which were at the time vacant. The 1970 Southern Bell phonebook has the yellow pages ad for Maudy's Bosom shown above, and they were also in the white pages. That seems to be the last phonebook with a listing, either yellow or white for the shop. They continued to be listed in the city directory in 1971 and 1972 (as 709 without any 'A' or 'B'). In the 1973 city directory, the listing for 709 Santee Avenue changes from Maudy's Bosom to Bosom Walk In Center. This listing repeats in 1974, but that is the last mention of the place.

There is currently no building numbered 709 Santee Avenue. This PDF of city council minutes from 2007 and the Kenny's brou-ha-ha indicates that 701 & 709 Santee were the Santee part of the Kenny's lot. I'm not sure how this location jibes with Michael's comment below..

And now, crowdsourcing -- this is what y'all have said:

Though I never heard Dale say it, I always thought he chose the name of the shop [The Joyful Alternative -- Ted] to be in contrast with other stores like Maudy’s Bosom, The Purple Turtle and AW Fully’s. Instead of loud, blaring acid rock they played loud, blaring Grateful Dead. Patchouli is unique.

Terry

Thanks for mentioning the other shops, one of which I think pre-date Joyful. Maudy’s Bosom was the first “head-shop” that I actually remember hearing about in Columbia in the late-’60s, but because I never went there I didn’t write about it. I do know it was in a two story turn-of–the-century house on Santee Avenue behind where Harper’s is now.

Michael Taylor

Jim – what a difference 35 years makes. When Marty’s Bosom opened the city fathers and the local media freaked out, and decided you could not have a Columbia business with the word bosom in the name. To keep from getting closed down, and so that he could buy ads, he spelled it backward and it became Marty’s Mosob.

Now there’s a Hooter’s in every neighborhood.
Dennis

I just looked at the Dec 6, 2009 post about Maudy’s Bosom. My old recollection was from when it was just called The Bosom and was a drug counseling center. My older sister told me that it had previously been a head shop called what I misheard as “Marty’s,” but my sister tells me that she thinks Maudy’s is correct. But she was a stoner back then, so . . . .

Jim

Maudy’s Bosom is correct. Awesome store to visit for “hippie” threads and for incense!!

Terese

BTW, does anyone know what "Pieces Of" Fashion Botique and "Conspiracy Records" mean/meant?

Written by ted on November 23rd, 2010

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Peaches Records & Tapes, 1001 Harden Street Suite 100: 1994   42 comments

Posted at 12:10 am in closing

As the Christmas season rolls round once more, I am put in the mind of Peaches Records & Tapes. Peaches was a record store chain whose "gimmick" was their easy-to-assemble kits of LP storage boxes. These were of wood and made to mimick retro peach shipment boxes complete with vintage appearing art. (Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks had an excellent album Orange Crate Art inspired by the same conceit).

Peaches had only one location in the Columbia area, a large space on the College Street side of the old Sears complex on Harden Street. The store had the not entirely positive distinction of having turnstiles, bag checks, and other theft prevention measures that were quite unusual at the time, but once you got in, it was quite nice. Although they did have a tape section (that's where the whole And Tapes thing came in), their main focus was vinyl, and they had quite an interesting selection. Possibly it was due to their Columbia location being close to USC, or simply that they had more floor space than The Record Bar or School Kids, but there seemed to be a higher possibility of finding something really interesting there than at those other shops.

They also had a large collection of "cut-outs" (new, but discontinued records) through which I loved to browse when I had the time and money (money was definitely in shorter supply than time..). I remember in particular finding an album by the German group Trio which had the killer songs "Da Da Da (I Don't Love You, You Don't Love Me)" and "Boom Boom" which as far as I could tell was available nowhere else in Columbia other than the studios of WUSC.

I mentioned up front that the Christmas season made me think of Peaches. That is almost entirely due to the fact that they were the only store in town which stocked Christmas 45s in depth. Then as now, Christmas albums started popping up everywhere, record store or no as the days turned to fall (though I think they usually waited at least until Halloween was over in those bygone days...). Christmas 45s were a bit more rare however. Of course you could find this year's Christmas songs at The Record Bar, but classic Christmas singles hardly ever. Starting in the late 1970s on cassette, I had been building a Christmas song program, adding and rearranging things a little every year as I found more of the music I wanted. Today we would call it a "mix tape". Anyway, I remember finding a number of tracks in their Christmas single collection that were impossible for me to find otherwise. The Temptations "The Night Before Christmas" for one, Elton John's "Step Into Christmas" / "Ho Ho Ho" for another and Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" for a third.

As far as I can gather, Peaches made a very bad business decision in the 1980s: They believed that the CD format would not catch on. As it turned out, this was very much not the case, and by the time they saw the writing on the wall, it was too late to retool and the chain went bankrupt. (Of course, even chains that bet on the CD have been killed by downloads, so Peaches would probably be gone now in any event).

After the chain folded, their (almost completely glass-walled) store stood empty on Harden Street for years. It stayed intact for longer than you might expect, then windows started being broken, and the thing became an eyesore. Finally when the old Sears strip was revamped for at least the second time, they knocked down the whole Peaches building, and put up the current Office Depot structure. I guess they shook the tree.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by ted on December 10th, 2008

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Sounds Familiar, 422 Bush River Road: Early 2000s   19 comments

Posted at 1:50 pm in Uncategorized

At one time, Sounds Familiar had quite a little record store empire. They had locations on Parklane, Garners Ferry, Colonial Life Boulevard, Harbison and in Myrtle Beach. There was a period of time when I really liked to go to their stores (especially the Myrtle Beach store) becase they had lots of interesting "import" CDs. (And if you don't understand the difference between import CDs and "import" CDs, I'm not going to explain it here.). They also had a very good selection of Beach Music LPs and CDs as well as a nice stock of used recordings.

Unfortunately, the industry began to change radically as first CD duplication technology and tnen Internet downloads began to take off. All record stores were hard hit and Sounds Familiar was no exception. I believe the Myrtle Beach store was the first to close, followed (I think) by this one and then the one on Harbison. In the case of this store, it can't have helped that it was just across the street from the larger and more esoteric Manifest location in Boozer Plaza.

The locations on Parklane and near Garners Ferry continue to soldier own. I was in the Garners Ferry location last week, and it appeared to be doing OK, if not great, but the last time I went by Parklane, it seemed to me that half of the floor space was just empty.

The state of the record store industry is one of those things I'm ambivalent about. I hate to see places where I found a lot of great music close, but on the other hand, I'm not going to stop ordering music online either.

UPDATE 28 June 2012: It turns out that this strip mall is actually listed as 422 Bush River Road rather than having a Colonial Life Boulevard address. I have updated the post title to include the correct street address. I should also mention that all Sounds Familiar locations have now closed (and can be found in the alphabetical closings list).

Written by ted on July 8th, 2008

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